(March 1, 2015 at 1:49 pm)Nestor Wrote:(March 1, 2015 at 1:38 pm)Minimalist Wrote:Doesn't that kind of make the possibility of his freeing an actual criminal and putting to death a religious heretic, by toying with the mob and forcing them to vote---during Jerusalem's most holy festival---a bit more credible?
No. Coupled with the handful of references in Josephus to Pilate what we see is a rather iron-fisted bastard who wouldn't give two fucks what a mob of jews called for. And there is no precedent at all for the utter nonsense of a criminal being released at Passover. That's just a plot device to make the jews look bad. Total bullshit.
Philo's repeated references to Tiberius ignores the reality that for much of Pilate's tenure the Empire was ruled by Lucius Aelius Sejanus on a day-to-day basis while Tiberius lived in semi-retirement at Capri. Since this began in 26 AD and coincided with Pilate's appointment it is fairly safe to say that Pilate was Sejanus' appointment, not Tiberius'. When Sejanus fell in 31, Pilate would have lost his "rabbi," so to speak.